Yokogawa says one way it has furthered the first of these goals is via its work in designing and delivering the integrated production control system for GranBio’s high-capacity second-generation bioethanol plant in São Miguel dos Campos, Brazil. Yokogawa’s systems support the safe and efficient operation of this plant, which produces the new variety of bioethanol made from non-food sources such as straw and sugarcane bagasse (the fibrous matter left after cane’s juice is extracted).

Insofar as community engagement and diversity go, Yokogawa offers the example of its activities in Saudi Arabia. Here, Yokogawa has championed human resources development and training of local citizens, as well as the advancement of women in society. Yokogawa’s Saudi Arabia subsidiaries have hired some 150 Saudi women since 2010, and of the current 60 female employees, 50 are engaged in engineering work.

"Companies have a growing responsibility to respond to issues such as population growth and the rising use of fossil fuels that are addressed in the Paris Agreement and the SDGs."

- Takashi Nishijima   PRESIDENT AND CEO, YOKOGAWA

Takashi Nishijima, Yokogawa’s President and CEO, affirms Yokogawa’s commitment to SDGs in a recent press release: “Companies have a growing responsibility to respond to issues such as population growth and the rising use of fossil fuels that are addressed in the Paris Agreement and the SDGs. Yokogawa provides solutions that improve the stability, efficiency, and safety of operations at industrial plants and other infrastructure facilities by, for example, speeding up processes, reducing workloads, and saving energy. Yokogawa needs to work harder to broaden its solutions so that it can address other issues that impact our society. Yokogawa will establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate on a medium-term basis the achievement of its sustainability goals, and will continue to create new value through co-innovation with its customers and partners.”

"The Millennials, Generations X, Y, and Z are much more aware of sustainability issues. These consumers are driving the movement forward."

- Professor Ashok Som   ESSEC BUSINESS SCHOOL

The approach of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development member companies is admirable, but there remains work to be done in encouraging more businesses to see sustainability as an important performance indicator. Professor Ashok Som from the management department of ESSEC Business School believes “Businesses integrating sustainability into KPIs as inevitable.” However, he feels many firms do not give sustainability the same priority as growth or profitability. Sustainability, he says, is often seen as “good to have, but not yet a must have”, and though most companies today institute worthy initiatives, upper management can frequently be “too busy with their stakeholders to make a proactive check periodically as to what is happening with the implemented policies. The pressure of the stock market and the economic environment is too burdensome.”

He argues that the drive for sustainability has to come from the top down, at owner or C-suite level. He says proving to business leaders that they can simultaneously increase profits and do good (for instance, by investing upfront in energy management systems that can provide huge year-on-year cost savings) will do much to sway nearsighted, revenue-focused CEOs. Legislation also plays a key role. “Politicians in developed and emerging nations where lot of catching-up needs to be done have to take more proactive steps,” Professor Som says. Consumer pressure is also a motivating force. “The Millennials, Generations X, Y, and Z are much more aware of sustainability issues. These consumers are driving the movement forward,” he notes.

"If you move the conversation on sustainability away from CSR and frame it in the dimensions of costs opportunity, market and revenue opportunity or strategic risk, you can create a compelling argument around these three dimensions and link that to financial bottom line indicators."

- Andreas Schaffer   SUSTAINABILITY DIRECTOR, NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY SINGAPORE

The Sustainability Director at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, Andreas Schaffer says in convincing upper management to prioritise sustainability, “Clearly, you can make a business case. If you look at the employees — whether it is lower accidents or lower absentee rates or lower turnover — and if you can convert that into a tangible business case with dollars and cents, then you quickly win these kinds of arguments. My experience with CEOs has always been, if you move the conversation on sustainability away from CSR (corporate social responsibility) and frame it in the dimensions of costs opportunity, market and revenue opportunity or strategic risk, you can create a compelling argument around these three dimensions, and then link that to, at the end of the day, financial bottom-line indicators. Then you start to have a different conversation.”

Schaffer says if you shift the discussion away from more superficial, PR-focused corporate citizenship activity and instead magnify “the higher level dimensions that a CEO thinks about, then you start to get buy-in from the C-Suite — and then you can start seeing initiatives that are much more fundamental.” This leads to practices that create a “virtuous cycle where, for example, supplier and buyer both benefit from certain types of behaviors and they are at the core of the company’s operations and bottom line. And then things become meaningful and scalable.” He says CEOs, mindful of fluctuation in share prices, are also conscious of pressures from institutional investors, which are responding to consumer sentiment and regulatory risk, and increasingly looking to invest in cleaner, more ethical companies.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals, says Schaffer, “are now being discussed as a more or less commonly accepted framework which the development of humanity overall should be measured against, and that includes companies’ views of what kind of efforts they should be making to contribute to that, in the context of their business mandate, of course. It certainly has become a useful framework for discussion, overall.” He says in integrating sustainability into their KPIs and corporate philosophies, “The industry leaders have done a pretty good job of converting very laudable sustainability goals in tangible criteria and metrics.” More will doubtless soon follow suit. As the experts point out, doing good is simply good business.

Founded in 1915, Yokogawa engages in broad-ranging activities in the areas of measurement, control, and information. The industrial automation business provides vital products, services, and solutions to a diverse range of process industries including oil, chemicals, natural gas, power, iron and steel, and pulp and paper. With the life innovation business the company aims to radically improve productivity across the pharmaceutical and food industry value chains. The test & measurement, aviation, and other businesses continue to provide essential instruments and equipment with industry-leading precision and reliability.

To learn more about Yokogawa Electric Corporation, click here.

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